I Believe in the Future of Farming[1] John Ikerd[2] I ... - Greenhorns

More documents

Recommendations

Info

of economic growth we Americans have come to expect. It’s time for people in developed and developing nations alike to turn our attention to the true art of living – to live wisely, agreeably, and well. It’s time to return to the historic purpose of human life; to the pursuit of happiness. People throughout human history have known that beyond some fairly modest level of material well-being there is no relationship between further increases in income or wealth and increases in happiness or overall quality of life. [vi] Once our basic material needs are met – food, clothing, shelter, health care, – the quality of our life depends far more on the quality of our relationships – friends, family, community, society – than on the quantity of income or wealth. We are social beings; we need to love and be loved. We are also ethical or moral beings. Our happiness depends on our having a sense of purpose and meaning in life. We need to feel in our heart that what we are doing is significant; that it’s right and good. A multitude of social science studies related to wealth and happiness confirm our common sense. Once our individual, tangible needs are met, the pursuit of happiness is about developing the social and spiritual dimensions of our lives, rather than striving to acquire more income or wealth. This is a vision of a new and better world that is worth taking the risks of revolutionary change. This is not some New Age utopian vision that is unattainable. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that happiness was a natural consequence of “right relationships” among friends and within families and communities. Alex Des Tocqueville, in writing about democracy in America in the early 1800s, termed concern for the well-being of others as “self-interest rightly understood.” The Dali Lama calls it being “wisely selfish” – understanding that our well-being is dependent on the well-being of the other living and nonliving things of the earth. All we need to do is return to those things people have always known to be right and true. We need only return to the pursuit of happiness. In this there is hope: The last requisite for change. The change we need may not be quick or easy but it most certainly is possible; in possibility there is hope. In fact, fifty years ago, American had begun to confront the ecological and social challenges to sustainability. The environmental, civil rights and peace movements of the 1960s represented an awakening of America to the necessity for fundamental change. In response, Americans set an aggressive public policy agenda for the 1970s to confront these challenges. But such changes are never easy. Unfortunately, during the 1980s, many Americans retreated from their commitment to ecological and social change and returned to striving for greater income and wealth. The world we see today is largely a consequence of the past 30-years of denial and retreat. For young people, thirty years seems a lifetime. But, thirty years is not long in American history and certainly not in human history. We need not allow this 30-year aberration in history define the future of humanity. We were once a better people so we know it is possible to be a better people again. In this possibility, there is hope. So what does this mean for the future of farming? We can see the negative consequences of the industrial era in American agriculture in the demise of the mid-sized, full-time family farms. Industrialization inevitably replaces people (labor and
management) with mechanization and chemistry (capital and technology). In addition, many displaced farmers are no longer able to find off-farm employment adequate to support their families in the faltering non-farm economy. We also see a growing social and economic inequity with the concentration of wealth in agriculture among the largest farm operators, non-residential landlords, and corporate agribusiness investors. We see degradation of the soil though cultivation, depletion of water through irrigation, and pollution of water with agricultural chemicals. Large-scale confinement animal feeding operations or CAFOs are the epitome of everything wrong with industrial agriculture. They pollute the soil, air, and water with biological and chemical wastes, destroy economic opportunities for farm families, and rip asunder the social fabric of rural communities. Many farmers are also caught up in the perils of rising energy costs with an agriculture that is hopelessly dependent of fossil energy. The impressive productivity of American agriculture is a direct consequence of cheap fossil energy – for fuels, fertilizers, and transportation. The American food system claims about 20% of all fossil energy used and requires about 10 calories of fossil energy for each calorie of food energy produced. About one-third of this total is accounted for at the farm level. The food system contributes a similar share of environmental problems, as greenhouse gasses are inevitably released through the use of fossil energy. Farming poses an added threat to global climate change through the release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from livestock operations and carbon dioxide from tillage of the soil. A new challenge looming on the horizon is the growing public awareness of the rising costs of health care, which have paralleled the industrialization of agriculture. Diet related illnesses are rampant in America, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and various types of cancers. Obesity related illnesses alone are projected to claim about one-in-five dollars spent for health care in America by 2020 – erasing virtually all of the gains made in improving public health over the past several decades. [vii] A growing body of scientific evidence links industrial agriculture to foods that are rich in calories and poor in nutrients, thus helping to fuel the epidemic of obesity and other diet-related illnesses. [viii] The industrialization of agriculture has been an absolute failure. A larger percentage of Americans are “food insecure” today than during the 1960s. Those who can afford to buy enough food are far less healthy. We are not meeting the needs of the present and certainly not leaving equal or better opportunities for the future. An industrial agriculture is not sustainable. Our current systems of farming and food production are not sustainable. Fundamental change in our systems of farming and food production is not an option; it is a necessity. Fortunately, the alternative vision for a positive future in farming can be found in a return to real farming – to what farming was before the industrialization of agriculture. The word farmcomes from Middle English word, ferme ("variously meaning: tenant, rent, revenue, stewardship, meal, feast"), from Old English feorm, farm ("meaning provision, food, supplies, possessions, rent, feast"), from Proto-Germanic firmō, firχumō ("means of
Page 1 and 2: I Believe in the Future of Farming
Page 3: contributors to greenhouse gasses a
Page 7 and 8: make knowledge more easily acquired
Page 9 and 10: striving because our striving creat

I Believe in the Future of Farming[1] John Ikerd[2] I ... - Greenhorns

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?